BUDAPEST - It was during the wrap party for Season 1 of the historic epic The Borgias when creator Neil Jordan approached Colm Feore with an unusual take on his character.

The versatile Canadian actor had played Cardinal Giuliani della Rovere as a pious, unwavering thorn in the side of the hopelessly corrupt Pope Alexander VI (Jeremy Irons) and his morally challenged offspring. He was a man willing to sacrifice his safety to do what he believed was right by the Church. Feore saw him as a heroic character in a television series that often seems bereft of heroic characters.

So he was surprised when Jordan told him that he saw della Revere as the “bad guy” and his adversaries as sympathetic protagonists.

“He said ‘Yes, I know, but we still like them better.’ I said ‘Well, I’m going to continue to play the ethical, moral centre of the piece if you don’t mind.’ ”

Of course, this is the world of The Borgias, where the good-guy, bad-guy divide is often a touch blurry. As if to prove that point, Feore bounces up near the end of the interview to check out a meticulously crafted set piece that’s been put aside on the sound stage. It’s a confessional and Feore carefully scans it for any telltale traces of blood. He is trying to determine if it was the one used in a particularly gruesome scene from Season 1 where his character suddenly plunges a knife into the eye of a spy posing as a confessor.

In 1492, the politics of the church were a messy business. And Feore promises that things will get even messier when The Borgias returns on April 8. Season 1 needed to spend time explaining the history and power structure of the period. Unravelling the Byzantine politics of the day was complicated. Now, they’re free to cut straight to the fun stuff.

“It took a little setting up before you could start taking clothes off and killing people,” says Feore. “Now that we’ve done that, we just start with the clothes off and the killing at the top of Season 2. The poisonings, stabbings, you name it, it’s just like cutting to the crash scene.”

Della Rovere will undergo a transformation as well as he begins to take on the darker aspects of his adversaries. He goes into hiding and becomes “bin Laden” in the “hills of Afghanistan,” Feore says.

“One of the things that my character does that is interesting this year is he learns from his experience,” he says. “The whole first season they spend trying to kill me and very nearly succeeding. Suddenly, della Rovere smartens up. Something twigs and he gets Machiavellian. Maybe it was having dinner with Machiavelli that helped. He sees what’s effective, not just what’s morally correct, but what’s effective.”

Audiences are used to seeing the Boston-born, Stratford, Ont.-based actor disappear into roles, whether it be behind the elaborate makeup of King Laufey in last year’s blockbuster Thor or into the psychological intricacies of real-life figures such as Pierre Trudeau and Glenn Gould. Playing the latter two — in the 2002 TV movie Trudeau and 1993’s Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould — were daunting propositions because their characteristics were still fresh in people’s minds, he says.

On the other hand, he doesn’t have to worry about the family of della Rovere coming after him for inaccuracies. Historically, the future Pope Julius II was a towering figure who would later become known as the “Warrior Pope.”

Granted, none of this is likely to make it into the Borgias anytime soon.

“I’ve obviously done an enormous amount of research that is never going to appear in this show,” he says. “But it comforts me on those long days off in Budapest when I have nothing better to do and it gives me some sense that I can talk to Neil intelligently. He’s spent a lot more time with this material than I have.”

evolmers@calgaryherald.com

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